How LocationSmart Provides Location Awareness While Protecting Privacy

Since 1995, LocationSmart has provided location services for emergency and commercial applications for connected devices across the United States and Canada and throughout the world. Clients now utilize LocationSmart for a variety of services including transaction verification; regulatory compliance; personal assistance services; work force management; IP, cellular and Wi-Fi data insights; Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) asset management; and more. As such, this Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) company takes privacy very seriously. Read on to learn more about LocationSmart and how it provides fully-managed and secure privacy controls.

About LocationSmart

Founded as TechnoCom Corporation in 1995, and now doing business as LocationSmart, the company is located in Carlsbad, California. Its focus is providing enterprises and location-based service providers a comprehensive set of location-based APIs via its cloud-based platform. LocationSmart’s time-tested platform ensures reliable and secure access to location information for its clients and their end-users across a variety of mission-critical use cases.

TechnoCom rebranded its Location Platform to LocationSmart in 2012, and in 2015 acquired Loc-aid Technologies, one of its competitors at the time. Since its inception, LocationSmart has established itself as a premier provider of cloud-based location services for a variety of industries, including financial services, transportation and logistics, personal emergency response, and gaming and lottery.

LocationSmart enables enterprises and service providers with location insights for smartphones, tablets and other types of mobile devices, including M2M and IoT devices. The vast proliferation and diversity of mobile devices has created an increased need for services like LocationSmart that specialize in enabling location awareness for these devices.

Another key focus of LocationSmart is frictionless online transactions and fraud mitigation. Their Device Profiling capabilities serve to streamline account originations, logins, and payments, while significantly reducing step-up authentications thanks to a global device identification and verification network. This advanced technology uses multiple methods to determine a user’s true intent, good or bad, hidden within the attributes of their own device and online browsing sessions so that transactions can be quickly processed or flagged for follow-up.

How Are LocationSmart Services Used?

LocationSmart provides businesses a variety of methods to gain location awareness for mobile and other internet-connected devices. This includes leveraging location information of Wi-Fi access points and routers, cell sites and IP addresses, as well as browser-based location for web sites and an SDK for mobile apps. In Canada, it also provides cellular network location available from the country’s leading wireless carriers.

A variety of gaming and lottery platform providers use LocationSmart to ensure that online wagers and purchases are conducted from authorized users within approved boundaries. While access to online real-money gaming and lottery services are allowed in certain countries, states, or provinces, there are areas where it is prohibited (even within those authorized areas). LocationSmart’s platform can be used to make sure that only those users located in approved areas are allowed access to these services. Essentially, LocationSmart services can be used to determine the location of internet and mobile devices for consenting users almost anywhere in the world through straightforward integration via its cloud-based APIs.

In addition to helping ensure regulatory compliance for gaming and lottery services, LocationSmart is used to add security to online financial transactions, enable personal emergency response services, and manage IoT and M2M devices. Along with its multi-faceted location capabilities, LocationSmart adds a layer of security through advanced device profiling and anti-spoofing technology for app developers and enterprise solution providers. As with all instances in which money is exchanged or mission-critical services are being delivered, security is a paramount factor in ensuring the integrity of online transactions, whether they are conducted via mobile or fixed connections.

Is LocationSmart Secure?

LocationSmart has implemented a variety of protocols to manage consent for and grant access to the location information it provides and to secure it from unauthorized access. These measures have ensured the security of location information on its platform for over nine years without a data breach. These days, consumers are used to sharing their location information in exchange for the benefits offered by advertisers and others offering location-enabled services so robust security is critical to maintain their trust in these services.

The growth of such sharing suggests the perceived benefits far outweigh the perceived loss of privacy it may entail. At the same time, however, consumers want assurances that the location information they do agree to share will only be used for its intended purposes and that it will not be accessible to entities engaged in phishing and other fraudulent behavior. This trade-off between value and privacy can be made by businesses responsibly and effectively with the consumer in control.

How Does LocationSmart Protect Privacy?

LocationSmart provides a variety of privacy controls that help its customers and their users manage access to and security for location services. For instance, LocationSmart respects consumer privacy by requiring its customers that access end-user location information to maintain explicit consent policies and by providing those customers consent-management controls via its platform. These controls make it possible for consumers to decline sharing their location information or revoke it at any time if previously granted.

The consent management controls provided by LocationSmart to its customers serve a variety of important purposes. First, they give consumers control of their location information. Accessing location information without the knowledge or consent of consumers opens up all sorts of liabilities for customers and would cause their end-users to lose trust in them and location-based services in general.

Additionally, it provides consumers with knowledge about how their location information will be used for a particular service. Consumers who know that their location information can be utilized to provide them with better and safer service will be more comfortable with the information they provide and the transactions they complete. This transparency promotes an overall climate of consumer awareness that also deters the activity of potential fraudsters.

The Bottom Line

LocationSmart offers enterprises and service providers the means to manage end user privacy for location services, giving both the business and their end users peace of mind that their information is under their control and protected. LocationSmart’s services ensure the end-user can set the terms of how location services are used. Enterprises and service providers are able to leverage LocationSmart’s platform to comply with privacy regulations and laws regardless of region or country. Most of all, these capabilities allow end-users to realize the full benefit of location services and get the best possible customer experience thanks to this incredible technology.

For more information or to speak with someone at LocationSmart about their services, please visit http://www.locationsmart.com.

UPDATE — LocationSmart’s Services and COVID-19

COVID-19 has indiscriminately turned the world upside-down and disrupted all industries from tech to restaurants, and everything in between. And the chaos it has caused isn’t exclusive to America — the pandemic has spread like wildfire to nearly every country in the world, effecting both the global and local economies.

Millions of Americans have lost jobs, with 42% of those jobs permanently gone. Families have had to figure out scheduling arrangements and those who are lucky enough to work from had to learn how to juggle work with school for their kids from home via zoom.

Many industries have seen a swift and unforgiving decline in business, from the travel and tourism industries, to hotels and restaurants. But periods of great change also force periods of great opportunity, and fortunately there have been a number of industries which have not only survived, but thrived as a result of the pandemic — namely healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and shipping.

Industries that can still operate remotely and off site are best positioned to navigate through this pandemic and beyond. Enduring the worst while the pandemic wages on takes flexibility, strength, and determination, and LocationSmart can not only accomplish this, but thrive in the process.

The E-commerce Revolution

E-commerce has revolutionized the tech industry. Back in 1994, nobody had ever heard of Ebay or Amazon, but now these are household brands that people use daily. E-commerce has completely refashioned industries like retail and supply chain for the past two decades, and Americans spent $154.5 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2019 alone, indicating E-commerce is here to stay.

Now with the advent of COVID-19, ecommerce is continuing to evolve and change. As people continue to social distance and limit exposure to the coronavirus, consumers are increasingly looking online for basic purchases. AmazonFresh, InstaCart, FreshDirect and so many others deliver goods and groceries right to consumers’ doorsteps, while UberEats and Favor can bring customers their favorite restaurant-quality meals. And that is only taking the grocery industry into consideration — from books, to makeup, clothing, electronics, and entertainment, consumers now leave their houses less frequently than ever.

Medical and scientific experts agree that social distancing is one of the best methods for avoiding exposure to the coronavirus, and 2020 has become a year of staying in, and finding ways to make home more comfortable. Of course, people will have to emerge from their hibernations eventually — some people don’t have access to food delivery and other services, but compared to a decade ago, society is now rapidly moving ever more into the virtual realm.

So what does this mean for other industries besides the food sector? With people raiding supermarkets for essential items such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, consumers have moved a majority of their spending online, causing the transportation industry to boom. After all, what better (and easier) way to social distance than having what you need delivered to you directly?

With widespread testing slowly rolling out across the country, the transportation sector also plays an essential role in the delivery of medical equipment, personal protective equipment, lab samples and other sensitive materials. Ensuring the delivery of such sensitive items requires adherence to both state and federal guideline while maintaining meticulous tracking and monitoring. This means it’s necessary to track location of the transport vehicle delivery at all times. This ushers in the technology industry to accurately pinpoint and estimate time-sensitive deliveries while the world works on a cure.

E-commerce has steadily boomed since 1994, and 2020 is rapidly ushering the next phase of the E-commerce revolution. COVID-19 has seen to it that it will be around for the foreseeable future. In the United States and Canada, web retailers increased sales by 52% in Q2 of 2020 when compared with Q2 2019. This means great news for web retail, transportation, and tech companies.

Transportation — Still The Backbone of America

Truckers have been deemed as “the backbone of America” and coronavirus will not be changing that fact any time soon. Some have predicted that the transportation industry will die out as truck drivers get replaced by self-driving cars, but the more immediate need right now is a delivery driver who knows where they’re going.

Truck drivers and the transportation industry remains vital in the delivery of e-commerce goods and person-to-person shipments. In January of 2020, experts predicted that demand for goods would be slow-moving, and it was — until the coronavirus hit. After the virus began in China, it continued to slow supply chains all over the world while people everywhere quarantined and practiced social-distancing. But because the movement of freight and goods is essential to our economy, the transportation industry has remained in business.

Supply chains have been greatly hampered, and while goods are still moving, it is at a much slower pace than before. But move it must. Both companies and consumers alike need to be able to track the delivery of important goods reliably, and that’s where Location as a Service comes into play.

Location as a Service

A prominent North American shipping company, uses LocationSmart’s cloud-based application program interface (API) platform to securely augment its GPS location capabilities without needlessly taxing device performance. It’s 2020, and consumers expect nothing less than the ultimate service and user experience. This is why you need to rely on a company with a solid product to ensure you know where your important deliveries are at all times.

Generally speaking, LocationSmart’s API-based approach called Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) offers the most efficient way to track and monitor shipments and deliveries. Instead of taking a power-consuming or processing-intensive device, LocationSmart relies on the power of the cloud to ensure quality and timely delivery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3dRBRL-UR4

The location-based services market has also been driven by the widespread use of cellphones. Just under 41.5% of the world population uses smart phones, according to a report by the United Nations in 2019. Thanks to this, and advancements in technology such as the advent of the cloud and IoT systems, the ability to automate operations has never been easier.

The healthcare industry is also expected to have an increase of IoT applications specialized for healthcare requirements. Texas Health for example, saved $412,000 by implementing the use of a real-time location-based system, making medical equipment easy to both locate and maintain.

Global Site ID

The logistics of a successful transportation supply chain involves many moving parts. We rely on technology to help facilitate getting the job done, but when that technology fails, we are often at a loss. For example, when delivering in remote areas, truck drivers sometimes have to deal with the loss of signal to their GPS, but the goods still have to be delivered. But how do you get around in a place you don’t know?

Welcome to Global Site ID (GSID) from LocationSmart. This technology works as a kind of insurance to keep the monitoring process alive and well by working around the given limitations of GPS technology itself.

LocationSmart provides top-performing location-based services for tracking materials and ensures delivery is carefully monitored each step of the way. In addition to challenges on the road with GPS signal connectivity, there are frequently issues elsewhere in the shipping process, from storage facilities, to urban canyons and containers. With GSID, device insights are provided where GPS devices fail, acting as a fallback for stressful situations.

LocationSmart:

LocationSmart was already well down the path to e-commerce when the coronavirus pandemic broke out across the world. By being nimble enough to adapt, survive, and thrive in this new normal landscape, LocationSmart provides the easiest and most comprehensive multi-source platform for local, hyper-local and context-aware application development. Serving Fortune 500 customers, enterprises, and value-added service providers, LocationSmart solves the needs for numerous industries, including IoT, internet gaming and lottery compliance, financial transaction verification and other core enterprise needs.

LocationSmart is changing the ways business operate. With over 15 billion connected devices, LocationSmart’s device profiling technology to authenticates billions of transactions per month. Shipping and handling is not slowing down any time soon, and with the larger volume of shipping traffic, more items, and vehicles are in transit while more people are employed as drivers. It’s a win-win. LocationSmart is a top provider for the most secure services tailor-made to adjust to the world post-coronavirus.